Businesses have achieved greater productivity in recent years by deploying mobile computing devices into the field to assist workers. For example, workers use vehicle-mount computers to display important information in the field. Vehicle-mount computers are computing devices that are specially designed to mount to a vehicle and be used by the vehicle operator. For instance, several types of vehicle-mount computers are available for installation and use in commercial vehicles including forklifts, warehouse vehicles, cranes, and delivery trucks and vans.
Vehicle-mount computer systems typically utilize a screen for displaying information to a vehicle operator or other occupant. The computer system may incorporate a touch screen, or other input device, so that the user can select desired information for display. A forklift operator may, for example, view inventory information regarding shipped or inventoried products, location information regarding the next item to be loaded for shipping, and navigation information relating to the item to be loaded directly from the cabin of the forklift using a vehicle-mount computer. The various types of user-selected information may be displayed either individually on the full area of a vehicle-mount computer screen or simultaneously on the computer screen using split-screen or otherwise partitioned views.
For safety reasons, vehicle-mount computer systems may incorporate a screen blanking or lock-out feature to prevent a driver of a vehicle from viewing or otherwise interacting with the vehicle-mount computer system while the vehicle is in motion. To prevent distractions that may cause accidents, the blanking or lock-out feature may disable all aspects of the computer system preventing all interaction by the driver during vehicle motion, or otherwise during potential vehicle motion such as when the vehicle is put into gear. Disabling of the computer system or blanking the computer screen is undesirable, however, due to the fact that the driver is not able to access relevant information during vehicle motion, such as delivery information relating to an item.
Although businesses have effectively employed vehicle-mount computers to increase worker productivity and improve the inbound, internal, and outbound flow of resources, challenges exist relating to the safe and effective display of information on vehicle-mount computer screens when a vehicle, such as a forklift, is in motion or is potentially in motion. When a vehicle is in motion, the information displayed must be easily read by the vehicle operator at a glance so that the screen blanking safety feature becomes unnecessary. Moreover, when in motion the driver may prefer that only certain information be displayed on the vehicle-mount computer such as, for example, information relating to the next item that will be picked up.
Although a vehicle operator could potentially configure a vehicle-mount computer to display certain desired information prior to placing the vehicle in motion, the driver would then have to remember the relevant information during vehicle motion after the screen blanking feature or lock-out feature is engaged. This is particularly inefficient for industrial vehicles that are continually picking up and delivering items.
Therefore, a need exists for improved systems and methods for displaying information using a vehicle-mount computer so that the computer screen blanking feature is overridden and information of interest that has been selected by a driver will be automatically displayed during vehicle motion. More particularly, there exists a need for a system to (1) obtain and store user-selected information on a vehicle-mount computer screen; (2) bypass computer screen blanking; and (3) provide an easily-readable, centered and zoomed view of the selected information when the vehicle is in motion.
Further, there exists a need for improved systems and methods for displaying information using a vehicle-mount computer that are adaptive as to the information of interest selected by a driver. More particularly, there exists a need for systems and methods that can automatically display additional information associated with user-selected information that might be more relevant when the vehicle is in motion or otherwise at various locations in relation to the item of interest.